Following Emotional Farewells To Family And Friends, 40 Connecticut National Guard Soldiers Deploy To Afghanistan

Family and friends gathered to say goodbye to their loved ones as they departed for their military mission on Wednesday morning in Windsor Locks. Forty members of the Connecticut Army National Guard's 192nd Engineer Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Company departed for deployment from Windsor Locks. The unit will first head to a mobilization station in Texas for training before leaving for Afghanistan. Based in Stratford and commanded by Lt. Col. Charles Jaworski, the unit will serve as a battalion headquarters supervising subordinate units specializing in route clearance. Day-to-day tasks will include the command and control of the route clearance efforts in its assigned area of operations.

Staring down a long deployment overseas, 40 men and women from the Connecticut National Guard reflected on what they would miss. For Lt. Col. Charles Jaworski, it will be his daughter’s college graduation.

“That’s a little bit emotional for me,” Jaworski said, preparing to say goodbye Wednesday to his wife and younger daughter. “I’m proud of her and we are going to do our best to see it through video.”

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In a fleeting break from their focus on the mission ahead, members of the Connecticut National Guard shared tender moments with family in a crowded facility as they prepared for a year in Afghanistan.

Some soldiers had just married. Others were awaiting the birth of their children. All have roots that spread across Connecticut, their leader said.

These soldiers boarded a drab bus by 8 a.m. that shuttled them to their flight. Peeking through a window in back of the bus, one young soldier yelled out: “Yes, mom; I love you.”

Led by Jaworski, the Stratford-based 192nd Engineering Battalion will supervise units clearing routes in Afghanistan amid a now 17-year war launched in the wake of the deadly Sept. 11 attacks.

A member of the Connecticut Army National Guard bids farewell to family and friends in Windsor Locks on Wednesday morning as soldiers depart on a shuttle bus to their aircraft. (Patrick Raycraft / Hartford Courant)

"Make no mistake, these men and women are experienced, tested leaders who are experts in their field and many of them have deployed previously," said Maj. Gen. Francis Evon, commanding officer of the Connecticut National Guard, ahead of the battalion’s departure.

But before they went, the soldiers and their families crowded into a Windsor Locks facility, sharing goodbyes and deep embraces with their families and friends.

For weeks, the focus had been on the mission, with eagerness and anticipation taking hold, Jarworksi said. But Wednesday, for the soldiers, was about family.

“Today, emotion takes over,” said Jarworski, a Morris resident who deployed once before, more than a decade ago.

The battalion heads first to Texas for some final training before leaving for Afghanistan, where they will stay for about a year, Maj. Mike Petersen said. The soldiers will be among 230 Connecticut National Guard troops on deployment across the world. Recent reports estimate the number of soldiers in Afghanistan at more than 8,000.

Pvt. Christopher Bushy, who lives in Old Lyme and works at Big Y, enlisted about a year ago. He said he was eager for his deployment. Looking at his fellow soldiers made him feel more at ease for the mission ahead.

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“[There] are a lot of experienced, seasoned [non-commissioned officers] and officers who have done this all before and have been deployed multiple times,” Bushy said.

As the soldiers and families spilled outside the facility, to wait for the bus, one Guardsman scooped up his young son and asked for “just one more” kiss before he left.

Deployments can be unpredictable, but the timing was fortunate for newly wed Lt. Reinaldo Ayala, a career member and professional photographer from New Haven.

Ayala and his wife had planned their wedding for two years, and tied the knot just four months ago.

“Luckily the deployment wasn’t before the wedding,” he quipped, not long after saying goodbye to his wife. “There are a lot of families here who just got married or are getting married. They are having babies or will have them while they are gone.”

But for Ayala and his wife, together for six years, this was not their first goodbye.

“The thing about the Guard is we say goodbye all the time. I’ve said goodbye for six-month periods, or three months here or two months there,” Ayala said, speaking to training he and his fellow soldiers routinely are sent on.